Fruit-press.



s. E. THOMAN.

FRUIT PRESS.

APPLICATION FILED. mm. 16. 1912.

Patented May 4, 1915.

r O t n e V n s! EN.

W W m 5 m M Witnesses I Attorneys SAMUEL E. THOMAN, OF SHADYSIDE, OHIO.

FRUIT-PRESS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 4, 1915.

Application filed March 16, 1912. 7 Serial No. 684,133.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL E. THOMAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Shadyside, in the county of Belmont and State of Ohio, haveinvented a new and useful Fruit-Press, of which the following, is aspecification.

This invention relates to fruit presses, one of its objects being toprovide a press of novel form having an apertured head and a compressingmeans cooperating therewith whereby the juice is expressed from thefruit in an efficient manner and the pulp is sheared off into minuteparticles, the apertures in the head being disposed in a novel manner.

With the foregoing and other objects in view which will appear as thedescription proceeds, the invention resides in the combination andarrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafterdescribed and claimed, it being understood that changes in the preciseembodiment of the invention herein disclosed can be made within thescope of what is claimed, without departing from the spirit of theinvention.

.In the accompanying drawings the preferred form of the invention hasbeen shown.

In said drawings :Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a machinehaving the present improvements combined therewith. Fig. 2 is a centralvertical section through the casing of the crushing mechanism, the wormbeing shown in elevation. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the bottom plate ofthe casing.

Referring to the figures by characters of reference 1 designates asupporting frame of any desired proportions and extending up to and overthe top of this frame is an inclined frame 2 in which is arranged aconveyer 3 having a shaft 9.

A hopper 10 is located to receive the material discharged from theconveyer 3 and this hopper discharges into the upper end of acylindrical casing 12. Said casing is preferably formed of sheet metaland in two semi-circular sections having flanges along their Verticaledges as shown at 13, the flanges being bolted together or otherwisesecured so as to hold the two sections securely together.

Annular ribs 14 are formed on the inner face of the casing 12 and thelower end of -the casing is surrounded by a flange 15 upstanding from abottom plate 16. This bottom plate has ears 17 outstanding therefrom andadapted to be fastened to the structure adapted to cooperate with a worm19 to crush the fruit supplied to the casing 12.

This worm has a stud 20 extending dowm wardly and bearing within anopening 21 in the bottom plate 16. v

A shaft 22 extends upwardly from the center of the worm and is journaledwithin a bracket 23 mounted on the top of the structure 1, said bracketlikewise constituting a bearing for a shaft 24.

A bevel gear 25 is secured to the shaft 22 and meshes with a gear 26secured to one end of the shaft 24. Another gear 27 meshes with gear 25and is secured to a shaft 28 journaled on the structure 1.

Shaft 24 carries a gear 32 which is secured to said shaft and mesheswith a gear 33 keyed or otherwise fastened to the shaft 9.

A sprocket 34 is secured to the shaft 24 and receives motion, through achain 35, from another sprocket 36 secured to a drive shaft 37.

A hopper 51 is arranged under the crusher head 16 and is adapted toreceive juice and pulp therefrom.

An inclined board 53 extends from a point below the hopper and isadapted to direct material into a conveyer 54.

It will be apparent that when the drive shaft 37 is actuated, motion istransmitted through sprocket 36, chain 35 and sprocket 34 to the shaft24 and the worm 19 is thus rotated and the elevator 3 set in motion. Thefruit to be pressed is placed on the elevator and carried upwardly. Thisfruit is then discharged into hopper 10 and gravitates into the casing12 and onto the upper convolution of the worm 19. As the worm is rotatedby the gears 26 and 25 the fruit is forced downwardly past the ribs 14,thus being initially out or crushed by the shearing action of the wormupon the ribs. Finally the fruit is compressed on the crusher head orplate 16 and moved there around by the lower or scraping end of theworm. The small portions of fruit are forced through the outlet openings18, it ha ing been found that by arranging the openings shown anddescribed a shearing action takes place between the end of the Worm andthe far edges of the openings 18. The crushed pulp is discharged throughopenings 18 into the hopper 51.

Importance is attached to the fact that the crushing mechanism can bereadily reached for the purpose of cleaning or repairing it. Forexample, by disconnecting the sections of the casing 12 from each otherthey can be removed from around the worm l9 and said worm as well as thecrusher head or plate 16 can thus be easily cleaned.

What is claimed is The combination with a casing, of a head constitutingthe bottom thereof, said head having a plurality of series of slots,disposed tangentially to a circular area at the center of the head, saidarea being of small size relative to the size of the head, each of saidslots being provided with parallel sides and being relatively narrow,all of the series of slots converging to form equal angles and extendingfrom points close to the periphery of the head to points close to thecenter of the head, and a Worm mounted for rotation within the casingand having a single straight radial scraping edge at one end bearingagainst the head, said Worm being pitched to compress material againstthe head, said scraping edge of the worm and the far edges of all of theslots in the head cooperating to shear material inwardly toward thecenter of the head.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto affixedmy signature in the presence of two Witnesses.

SAMUEL E. THOMAN.

Witnesses:

SELINA WILLsoN, ERNEST F. RILEY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

